


Leaver's Dance

by saellys



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Character Study, Developing Relationship, Gen, Missing Scene, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-03
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-11 09:06:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5621539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saellys/pseuds/saellys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“BB-8’s with Finn,” Poe says. He reaches over to press two fingers against the bulkhead padding. “Promised to comm me if anything changes. I brought food, and I thought maybe you could use a little help getting this thing ready for the trip.” He shakes his head. “I haven’t been on this ship in twenty, twenty-five years.”</p>
<p>Before she was born. Rey squints at him. Jakku ages humans fast, and she’s never been good at gauging that. She assumed he was the same age as Finn. But then, how old is Finn? She never asked, before.</p>
<p>She <i>will</i> have a chance to ask.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaver's Dance

**Author's Note:**

> It will never not burn me up that TFA gave us zero interactions between Poe and Rey, so here I am again.

“Anybody alive in here?” 

Rey startles, nearly smacks her head inside the access port, and curses as she backs out and stands in the  _ Falcon _ ’s engineering station. How did she let herself get so preoccupied that she didn’t sense someone coming? 

She looks into the corridor, and finds Poe Dameron turning a slow circle to take in the battered interior. “What are you doing?” she asks, managing to soften it at the last moment and not outright snap at him. One of them should be in medical, in case--

“BB-8’s with Finn,” Poe says. He reaches over to press two fingers against the bulkhead padding. “Promised to comm me if anything changes. I brought food, and I thought maybe you could use a little help getting this thing ready for the trip.” He shakes his head. “I haven’t been on this ship in twenty, twenty-five years.” 

Before she was born. Rey squints at him. Jakku ages humans fast, and she’s never been good at gauging that. She assumed he was the same age as Finn. But then, how old is Finn? She never asked, before. 

She  _ will _ have a chance to ask. 

Rey realizes she’s staring and then realizes Poe is looking back, with a distressingly enigmatic half smile on his face. She turns back to the conduit she’s working on before a flush can rise on her cheeks. “Chewbacca and I are doing fine.” 

“I didn’t say you weren’t,” he says, and outside the access port she can see his boots stop in the doorway, lean to one side. “Look, I need something to do with my hands. I wasn’t made for waiting, and I finished patching Finn’s jacket. Have you got the ventral quad cannon loosened up yet?” 

“Do you think I’ll need it?” 

“Can’t hurt to be prepared, right? Oh, and I liberated the last piece of grasser cheese from the mess hall.” 

Rey withdraws carefully from the access port and considers the small bundle he offers her. She doesn’t want him to think he can bribe her, but cheese is among the three greatest things Rey has found out about since leaving Jakku. “My hands are dirty.” 

Poe takes a pristine rag from the pocket of his flightsuit; he thought of everything. Rey accepts it and cleans the grime off her fingers, then unwraps the cheese and takes her time with it. 

“Look how many times this has been welded,” Poe says, unlatching the cap of a regulator valve. “Wonder if there’s a way to bypass it?” 

Mouth full, Rey nods to the access port, and Poe stoops to look inside at the half-stripped conduit. “Yeah, that’s the right track.” He stands back up, and seems to notice for the first time how cramped the engineering station is--he tucks his hands behind him and leans in an open space between diagnostics panels, taking up a bit less room. “Once you get everything functional, you ought to see about putting some plaques up.  _ In this spot twelve years after the Battle of Yavin _ \--”

“Commander Poe Dameron, age seven, crashed a model X-wing into a fuse reset button, jettisoning both the  _ Millennium Falcon _ ’s escape pods in the middle of a hyperspace jump?” 

Poe straightens and salutes General Organa. “And apologized about a hundred times, ma’am.” 

Rey swallows as the general peers into the room. “I think there were even tears. Everything going okay in here?” 

“Yes ma’am,” Rey tells her, fighting hard not to smirk at Poe. 

“Glad to hear it. Chewie’s almost finished replenishing the concussion missiles, though I certainly hope you won’t need them. If you’re short anything else, tell Requisitions I authorized it.” The general glances at the open valve and access port, and something passes across her face too fast for Rey to comprehend. “And, sorry about the shoddy welding. I always got interrupted.” She gives them both a nod before she goes. 

Once her footsteps fade Poe says, “There are a lot more interesting things you can put on a plaque.” Rey stops fighting her smirk, and Poe makes a face at her--but at least his most embarrassing childhood secret wasn’t just exposed in front of a crowd. “I’m gonna get started on the ventral cannon. I’ll check in with you in a little while.” 

He ducks out of the engineering station, and Rey pops the last morsel of cheese into her mouth, still smiling, and gets back to work making her ship run smoother. 


End file.
